Origins: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin

Subject: mantle of green
From:
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 03:52 AM

Hie out there ! I´m searching for the words to a song called "Mantle of green. I only remember the first line. It was : "When my love came to Dublin , one fine ... morning ..????". I ope there´s anyone who can help me. Hope to hear from anyone , Daniel

Subject: RE: mantle of green
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 04:39 AM

we have 'Mantle so green' in the database, but it doesn't have the line you cite.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: MANTLE OF GREEN
From: Brakn
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 08:53 AM

This is slightly different than the one in the DT.

Regards, Mick Bracken

As I walked out one morning in June
To view the fair fields and the meadows green,
I spied a young damsel. She appeared like a queen
With her costly fine robes and her mantle so green.

I stood in amazement and struck with surprise.
I thought her an angel that fell from the skies.
Her eyes like the diamond, her cheeks like the rose,
She is one of the fairest that nature composed.

Said I, "Pretty fair maid, if you come with me,
We will join in wedlock and married we'll be.
I'll dress you in rich attire. You'll appear like a queen
With your costly fine robes and your mantle so green."

She answered me, "Young man, you must be refused,
For I'll wed with no man. You must me excuse.
To the green hills I'll wander to shun all men's view,
For the lad that I love lies in famed Waterloo."

"Since you are not married, tell me your lover's name.
I have been in battle. I might know the same."
"Draw to my garment and there you will see
His name is embroidered on my mantle so green."

On the raising of her mantle it's there I beheld
His name and his surname in letters of gold.
"Young William O'Reilly" appeared in my view.
He was my chief comrade in famed Waterloo.

"We fought so victorious where bullets did fly,
And in the field of Norvan your true lover does lie.
We fought for three days to the fourth afternoon.
He received his death summons on the eighteenth of June.

"When he was dying, I heard his last cry:
'Were you here, lovely Nancy, in peace I would die.'
Peace is proclaimed and truth I declare:
There is your love's token: the gold ring I wear."

She stood in amazement, the paler she grew.
She flew from my arms with her heart full of woe.
"To the green hills I'll wander for the lad that I love."
"Rise up, lovely Nancy. Your grief I'll remove.

"Oh Nancy, lovely Nancy, it was I won your heart
In your father's garden that day we did part.
In your father's garden within a green shadow tree
Where I rolled in your arms in your mantle so green."

This couple got married, I heard people say.
Great nobles attended their wedding that day.
Peace is proclaimed and the war is all over.
"You're welcome to my arms, lovely Nancy, once more."

Subject: Lyr Add: MANTLE OF GREEN
From: MudGuard
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 12:35 PM

Here comes the Mantle of Green I know (and containing the line you have):

MANTLE OF GREEN

My love came to Dublin one fine Sunday morning.
My love came to Dublin to honour me there.
He wore a green ribbon wrapped round a green bonnet,
And I wore a bangle of gold in my hair.

Now the leaves they were green on that bright Sunday morning,
But now they have fallen. There's wind in the bough.
And I never asked him to buy me a ring.
Fall down very lightly, you leaves, on me now.

I will not ask the clergy for prayers in the chapel.
I'll not hear the minister saying his prayers.
I'll go down to the river 'neath the birch trees and branches,
And ask them to raise up their arms in the air.

Now the good girls they sleep in all their fine modesty.
The bad girls they sleep in the hide of their shame.
I lie alone in the wood by the river
Till I see my true love return with my name.

And I make him some shoes of the finest green leather.
I make him a cloth the finest you've seen,
And he'll walk like a lord through the city of Dublin,
And I'll walk beside him in mantles of green.

Subject: RE: mantle of green
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 12:39 PM

well done, Andreas, who sings that?

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: mantle of green
From: MudGuard
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 12:45 PM

I have it on the CD The Irish Folk Festival - The Women, and this song is sung by Aoife Clancy
Andreas

Subject: RE: mantle of green
From: Daniel
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 01:41 PM

That´s it !!! Thanx a lot ! Bye, Daniel

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LOVE CAME TO DUBLIN (from June Tabor)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Oct 14 - 12:55 PM

The latter song—the one requested—is also known by the title MY LOVE CAME TO DUBLIN:


MY LOVE CAME TO DUBLIN
As sung by June Tabor on "Apples"

My love came to Dublin one fine Sunday morning.
My love came to Dublin to honour me there.
He wore a green ribbon all about his blue bonnet,
And I wore a bangle of gold in my hair.

Now the leaves they were green on that fine Sunday morning,
But now they have fallen, their wind in the bough.(?)
And I never asked him to buy me a ribbon.
Fall down very lightly, you leaves, on me now.

Now the good girls they sleep in all their fine modesty.
The bad girls they sleep in the height of their shame.
I must lie alone in the cold by the river
Till I see my true love come back with my name.

I won't ask the clergy for prayers in the chapel.
And I won't hear the minister saying his prayers.
I'll go out to the mood of the birch trees and branches,
And I'll ask them to raise up their arms in the air.

I will make my love some shoes of the finest Spanish leather.
I will make my love a coat the finest ever seen,
And he'll walk like a lord through the city of Dublin,
And I'll walk beside him in a mantle of green.

[Repeat first verse.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Fergie
Date: 25 Oct 14 - 05:39 PM

Written by Patrick Galvin who also wrote Where Oh Where is Our James Connolly.

Fergus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 Oct 14 - 06:35 PM

Yes, and first recorded by Patrick Galvin on Riverside in the 1950s (can't trace the LP number at the moment). Galvin's is a fine poignant version, worth hearing if you can find it. Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Reinhard
Date: 26 Oct 14 - 07:37 AM

The second verse of June Tabor's My Love Came to Dublin is (from the CD liner notes):

Well the leaves they were green on that fine Sunday morning,
But now they are falling, they're winding the bough.
And I never asked him to buy me a ring.
Fall down very lightly, you leaves, on me now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: GUEST,Rosa Alba
Date: 26 Aug 16 - 07:45 PM

According to Danny Couper, it was a protest by Galvin (?a former priest) in terms of the treatment of unmarried mothers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Aug 16 - 02:59 AM

How would one pronounce "winding" in the line Reinhard posted?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Aug 16 - 03:50 AM

June Tabor sings it with a long 'i' as in 'minding'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: GUEST,Ruth
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 01:05 PM

The Tabor version must be based on an older folk song because there are lines from it in Steven Vincent Benet's epic Civil War poem "John Brown's Body" (1928). It comes near the end, from a country girl who met a Union deserter, got pregnant by him, then lost him when he was arrested.
               Love came by from the riversmoke,
                When the leaves were fresh on the tree,
               But I cut my heart on the blackjack oak
                Before they fell on me.

               The leaves are green in the early Spring,
                They are brown as linsey now,
               I did not ask for a wedding-ring
                From the wind in the bending bough.

               Fall lightly, lightly, leaves of the wild,
                Fall lightly on my care,
               I am not the first to go with child
                Because of the blowing air.

               I am not the first nor yet the last
                To watch a goosefeather sky,
               And wonder what will come of the blast
                And the name to call it by.

               Snow down, snow down, you whitefeather bird,
                Snow down, you winter storm,
               Where the good girls sleep with a gospel word
                To keep their honor warm.

               The good girls sleep in their modesty,
                The bad girls sleep in their shame,
               But I must sleep in the hollow tree
                Till my child can have a name.

               I will not ask for the wheel and thread
                To spin the labor plain,
               Or the scissors hidden under the bed
                To cut the bearing-pain.

               I will not ask for the prayer in church
                Or the preacher saying the prayer,
               But I will ask the shivering birch
                To hold its arms in the air.

               Cold and cold and cold again,
                Cold in the blackjack limb
               The winds of the sky for his sponsor-men
                And a bird to christen him.

               Now listen to me, you Tennessee corn,
                And listen to my word,
               This is the first child ever born
                That was christened by a bird.

               He's going to act like a hound let loose
                When he comes from the blackjack tree,
               And he's going to walk in proud shoes
                All over Tennessee.

               I'll feed him milk out of my own breast
                And call him Whistling Jack.
               And his dad'll bring him a partridge nest,
                As soon as his dad comes back.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 01:14 PM

What a lovely lyric...stunning.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 02:24 PM

There is a version in Ford's Vagabond Songs published in Scotland in 1904. I seem to remember he implied it was Irish, whether or not his version actually had any Irish placenames in it.

Must be a 19th century broadside ballad. Somebody must have an Irish copy of it surely?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 03:03 PM

I'm happy to accept the Galvin provenance. Certainly I have no record of any broadsides. Plenty for 'M so green' some of which are titled 'M of Green'. What page in Ford have you, Jack?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 06:14 PM

Jack, I have been right through the 1904 edition and can find nothing remotely like the song here! Can you point me in the right direction, please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 08:18 PM

Sorry. I got Ford and Ord mixed up; I was miles away from either book then. Ord p.155 in the John Donald facsimile. The Irish reference is the narrator's name, William O'Riely.

Subject: RE: Origins: Mantle of Green / My Love Came to Dublin
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 04:47 PM

Joe - needs cleanup